


Child of Flowers

by CeliaBlair24



Series: Wilted [1]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, Angst, F/F, Gen, Non-Linear Narrative, POV Third Person Limited, Past Relationship(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-02
Updated: 2019-04-04
Packaged: 2020-01-01 01:40:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18326102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CeliaBlair24/pseuds/CeliaBlair24
Summary: There's things that happen, even here in this bubble we've made for ourselves.





	1. Dandelions

_In a bed of flowers, I meet your eyes._

_For the first time, I feel no fear._

_One_

*

 

”I hear you’re working on a new book”

 

Yang’s not one for small talk, opting usually for something more cocksure, less inhibited. As it stands, for today she’s… quiet. Stirring her coffee almost absentmindedly if not for the way her eyes flicker over the rim, narrowed and wanting.

 

“Yeah,”

 

Usually, Weiss isn’t one for small talk either. She absolutely despises it, actually. It’s useless, an absolute waste of time. And yet….

 

“That’s great.”

 

Yang’s incurious, almost mechanical in her answer.

 

If not for the curiosity burning through her veins, Weiss would probably give into the tension weighing over them, cut through it if only to avoid the awkwardness laying in its wake.

 

She was never one for situations like this.

 

“I heard you were moving back into town,”

 

Weiss starts minutes afterwards, smile tight and coffee cooling in her grasp. Yang, for all her staring, barely acknowledges her.

 

“Ruby said she’s happy ‘bout it. She was so excited when she found out last night, you should’ve see-“

 

“Cut the bullcrap.”

 

There’s a fire in her eyes, belied only by the paper-like whiteness of her fists around her own mug of coffee.

 

Weiss gulps through her own drink. Caramel macchiato, a little two sweet with a little less cream than she’d normally order. It’s cold.

 

It’s finished before she answers.

 

“Hello to you too, Yang.”


	2. Lavender

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A bump in time.

_Sometimes, when the world isn’t too bright, and reality isn’t so difficult, I let myself free._

_To feel, to roam, to dream._

_Life is beautiful._

_Two_

 

*

 

There’s clinking in the kitchen, the soft ring of silverware on glass. Feet pattering, a light hum of words indistinguishable.

 

“Ah, you’re home early, dear”

 

Her palms are a creased white, wet and clumped from where she has them raised over a mound of dough. There’s a small smile niggling at the corners of her lips, and her eyes crinkle at their ends as she finally looks up from the counter top.

 

“Ruby, hey”

 

It’s been a long day out, and Weiss? She was exhausted. Ruby gets her though, like she always does. When Weiss slumps into one of the high stools behind the bar, she only hums more, thumbing through a lock of white hair when she crosses over from the sink to the stove, where she has a pot boiling.

 

“I’m making pasta tonight,”


	3. Roses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Enter, non-reality.

_I cross the ocean of red,_

_A specter little seen._

_Beyond me, as ever_

_An oasis._

_Three_

_*_

 

Swaddling red, diaphanous and flowing. Beyond the green of meadows long, she sees it. Brushed up by the wind, as waves in the ocean, circling a figure shrouded by the morning sun. There are no trees to cover them, no flowers blocking their path. The meadow is long and barren, if not for the green of the grass, and the wetness of the soil beneath her feet.

 

“Hello?”

 

There are words that circle the space between them, echoing along the rush of water against the wet stones bordering the embankment just over the edge of the field. The sun, though just rising, settles itself leisurely in a crest between the horizon and the space beyond, brightening with every flicker of her watch hands. The grass dips with every thin breeze, leaning towards the red swaddled figure beyond her, caressing her hood, and the fingers that peak through the slits of the material.

 

“Hello??”

 

It is through this beauty, perhaps, that she realizes with a start.

 

A dream.

 

This is a dream.

 

Her questions remain unanswered, and the landscape morphs quickly from its own picturesque manifestation of Patch’s autumn-barren flower fields to dirt-paved roadways and the jutting rocks of the sierra lining the edge of Vale town proper. The person remains, though a mirage of their former self. The hood no longer hides the raven-blackness of her hair, short and curled at its ends. Skin darker than her own, but lighter still than how she remembers it being. The familiarity is startling, if not for the dread pooling in her stomach.

 

“Ruby,”

 

She turns, Ruby, smiling all the while. Her silver eyes are just as she remembers them.

 

“What are you doing here?”

 

She doesn’t answer, but there is a sadness there that wasn’t present before. Nipping at thin lips, and chattering after the sudden coolness of the wind.

 

She can hear the splash of water against rocks, the rush of the ocean waves below.

 

The dream has shifted again, the gray of the mountain greening, softening. Until the mounds beside her are dirt-filled and clay-like, as she remembers those in Mistral being.

 

The sound of the ocean waves gets louder. They’re closer to the edge than she’d thought.

 

“Ruby…”

 

She starts, walking towards her. The red of the cloak strokes at the paleness of her skin, contrasting, highlighting... and Ruby looks almost ethereal.

 

“Fear,”

 

Ruby starts, voice warbled. Shallow.

 

“You know that, don’t you, Weiss?”

 

When next Weiss opens her eyes, it’s the morning after. Sunlight slinks in through the curtains lightly, pinkened by the dye of the rooms’ thin curtains. Beside her, Ruby sleeps soundly, not one care in the world.

 

And Weiss? She fears.


	4. Rosemary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The view below.

_Do you not hear them_

_Whispering in the wind?_

_Wanting,_

_Always wanting._

_Four_

_`_

There was half a mile between the ground and the flattened top-hat that was the building’s roof. If she were then, to stand on the edge and look down, she’d just as easily see the people below, as she would ants scuttling over dirt.

 

A wanting comparison, perhaps. (Yet she was never known for her niceness).

 

The winds pick up, twisting in its grasp the cloying stench of urbanization. Gasoline and garbage, topped off by what little freshness seeps off the docks. (Yet the sea glistens even from this far away, even when blocked by the hulking metal ships resting at the cargo bay).

 

It’s bittersweet, the view from here.

 

“Ah, Weiss”

 

The door behind her clicks shut. She doesn’t have to turn to know who’s standing behind her.

 

Weiss sighs, burying her fingers in the silver of her hair. The metal feels cold from where she rests her forehead.

 

“You weren’t planning to jump, where you?”

 

She’s closer now, somehow having managed to walk over without being heard. If it were any other day, Weiss would’ve been impressed.

 

“Now, what would be the point in that?”


	5. Chrysanthemums

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The quietness resounds.

_The little things,_

_It’s the little things that startle me._

_Five_

_*_

There’s movement in the river, deep blue and far from here. The surface sparkles, as if it’d gotten a child’s glitter pallet and drizzled itself in it, and the water is clear, clearer than mistrals open-watered lakes, clearer still than the murky brown travesty of Vale City’s tributary. It’s because of this that, despite the distance, it was quite visible; the heads bobbing along the surface of the river.

 

“You see that, Ruby?”

 

Ruby looks up, eyes unfocused; glistening. She’d been reading again, one of those popular angst-romps that’s supposedly meant for teenagers.

 

“Huh?”  


Weiss points them out. The yellow-black wading through the stillness of the rivers surface.

 

“That-”

 

Ruby squints, tucking her palms between her thighs, eyes narrowed and brows pinched.

“That’s Blake. That’s Blake!!”

 

She calls, stretching a hand into the air, trying to wave her over. Yang bristles from where she is, tucked into the farthest corner of the cars open-trunk. Weiss is quick about it, thankfully. Stealing away Ruby’s hand and clamping her mouth shut before Blake could notice her.

 

“Weiss??”

 

Ruby whines, voice muffled by the crest of Weiss’ palm. Her eyes are curious, if not pleading. She looked upset.

 

“Don’t.”

 

Weiss whispers, brushing a hand through Ruby’s bangs.

 

“I haven’t talked to her in weeks,”

 

Ruby whispers later on, watching as Blake walks away from the water. She’s laughing, shoulders shaking; cat-like eyes pulled to slits.

 

Weiss doesn’t respond, doesn’t really know how to.

 

Yang, as she’d been the entire time they’d been there, resting along the river bank, remains quiet behind them.

 

It’s not the first time it’s happened, and it’s certainly not the only time it ever will. It doesn’t make it hurt any less though, the way she seems to shut herself off near completely.

 

“I wonder how she’s doing,”

 

Ruby says, chin atop her raised knees, arms wrapped tightly around herself. She watches Blake, sitting along the edge; smiling still.

 

Weiss turns when she sees Sun there, finally joining her. He seemed about as happy as she was, and it made something in Weiss twist, squeeze into itself.

 

When Blake notices them, Yang’s red open-back and the checkered picnic blanket Ruby brings around everywhere, she smiles, waving at them.

 

It’s petty, maybe, but Weiss just couldn’t find it in her to care.

 

She completely ignores her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As perchance you can tell, this isn't exactly a complete narrative. I know its wack, completely off-kilter and ambiguous to some extent, but as said in the description of this series, it serves mainly as an addition to the main storyline. A prelude of sorts, with overarching character arcs, mixed scenes and all that jazz. Maybe it's not your cup of tea but, i swear it'll be worth it. Gimme a week ;)
> 
> With love, 
> 
> -Ce


End file.
